Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. She’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, Elise discovers she has what it takes to be an awesome DJ.

One YALSA Teen Galley reviewer says “I love you [Leila Sales] for making a main character who IS ACTUALLY A TEENAGER WHO MAKES TEENAGE DECISIONS WITH A TEENAGE ATTITUDE.”

Five lucky winners will receive a free copy of This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales. To enter, send an email with your name, shipping address, and email address. Entries must be received by 12 pm on October 25, 2013. Winners will be selected in a random drawing and notified via email on or before November 4, 2013. One entry per person, please; prizes will only be shipped to U.S. addresses.

In case you aren’t one of the lucky winners, you can read an excerpt here,  and you can even meet the author! This Song Will Save Your Life is part of Macmillan Children’s Fierce Reads Tour this September and October.

Please send your name, the name of your library, and complete mailing address (US only) to leah@beyondword.com with “So, You Want to Be a Chef? Giveaway” as the subject line by September 30, 2013. Fifty winners will be chosen at random and will be notified via email by October 15.

The third title in the “Be What You Want” series, So, You Want to Be a Chef? provides tips and advice from kids as well as seasoned professionals. Recipes, activities, and sidebars with fun factoids, like the history of the cupcake, keep readers engaged.

Discover more in the “Be What You Want” series with So, You Want to Be a Writer? and XXX, both available now. Don’t wait to grow up to discover your dreams, get started today!

Five lucky winners will discover Cia’s fate in this new dystopian series when they receive the ultimate Testing prize pack which includes a copy of The Testing, an ARC of Book 2 in the series, Independent Study, as well as a t-shirt, bracelets and more!

Enter to win The Testing Giveaway at http://goo.gl/aX0Nrz by 8/28/13. Winners will be chosen at random, and will be notified via email by 8/30/13.

With grace and insight, Clay Carmichael tells the story of twin brothers who only recently discovered the existence of the other. On a secluded North Carolina island, they each struggle to find their own identity, which is hidden behind years of family secrets and resentment. Part coming-of-age and part love story, this southern YA literary novel is reminiscent of John Corey Whaley’s award-winning Where Things Come Back (S & S, 2011), and certainly won’t disappoint.

SLJ says, “This prince-and-pauper tale will have readers poised to learn the truth with Brother, rooting for him. This uplifting underdog story will draw thoughtful readers with its well-wrought characters and themes of family secrets, romance, and virtue.”

Five lucky winners will receive a free copy of Brother, Brother by Clay Carmichael. To enter, send an email with your name, shipping address, and email address. Entries must be received by 12pm on October 4, 2013. Winners will be selected in a random drawing and notified via email on or before October 11, 2013. One entry per person, please; prizes will only be shipped to U.S. addresses.

In case you aren’t one of the lucky winners, you can read an excerpt here!

Winners will be chosen at random—send an e-mail by Friday, June 14, with your name and mailing address to info@theroadrunnerpress.com, with “SLJTeen Giveaway” in the subject line. We’ll notify winners by email on Monday, June 17. Here’s more about The Immortal Von B.

When Josie Brunswick has to move to Europe so her dad can head up a new secret world genetics lab, she doesn’t think life could get any worse. Then her beloved musician mother dies, and she’s left to all but raise herself. Music becomes her reason to live, until an experiment in her dad’s lab gives her something unbelievable to focus on, something that will send her on a mad and dangerous adventure through Vienna and through time. Before it’s all over, Josie will have answered the question: could a teenaged girl from this century find love with a young composer from another?  For an excerpt, visit www.MScottCarter.com.

As an incentive to get kids to visit the library during the summer, Bedtime Math is offering two math-focused programs for free to libraries across the country. The “Bedtime Math Pajama Party” kit contains games for three-to-nine-year-olds that teach basic math, such as “Twisted Tangrams,” as well as glow-in-the-dark magnets, party favor bags, and everything that’s needed to plan for programming the event in the library. The kit can be ordered online.

“Summer of Numbers” sets include two-month calendars (June 15–August 17) that feature Bedtime Math problems. The set also includes gold star stickers that kids can apply each day they do a math problem. Library representatives can order the calendars through May 15 for delivery before mid-June.

Both programs have been piloted in dozens of libraries in New Jersey and across the U.S. “Since the beginning, we have said that literacy and numeracy go hand in hand, and that public libraries are allies with Bedtime Math to keep students engaged and learning during the summer and all extended school breaks. We look forward to sharing these free library-and kid-tested programs more broadly,” noted Laura Overdeck, Bedtime Math founder.

National Geographic and Common Core

National Geographic Kids is being launched by Gale, part of Cengage Learning, as a new resource in their National Geographic Virtual Library product line. Intended for elementary and middle school students, National Geographic Kids includes full issues of the magazine from 2009 to the present, 500 downloadable images, and 200 National Geographic Kids books, including nonfiction titles and the National Geographic Readers. The resource’s content supports Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

You can purchase or subscribe National Geographic Kids as a stand-alone or as part of the complete National Geographic Virtual Library line. You can get a free trial of the product and find out more information.

Ebooks

Four S. E. Hinton novels are now available in ebook format for the first time from Diversion Books: Taming the Star Runner, Rumble Fish, Some of Tim’s Stories, and Tex. They can also be purchased from the iBookstore and all major online ebook retailers.

Capstone Partners with Save the Children

Capstone is working with Save the Children to raise money for the organization’s emergency fund to help children and families during severe crises and natural disasters with food, medical care, and education. Capstone will donate money to Save the Children from its sale of Flood, a wordless picture book by Alvaro F. Villa about a family’s experience after a flood. You can request a free reader’s guide to the book from Capstone Young Readers.